Eighth Circuit Rules Eviction Moratoria are Likely to be Takings Requiring Compensation Under the Fifth Amendment

The court based its decision on the US Supreme Court's 2021 decision in Cedar Point Nursery v. Hassid.

Ilya Somin April 9, 2022

On April 5, in Heights Apartments v. Walz, a unanimous panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit ruled that a Minnesota state eviction moratorium (enacted for the purpose of mitigating the Covid pandemic) likely qualifies as a taking of private property requiring compensation under the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment. They based their ruling in large part on the Supreme Court's June 2021 decision in Cedar Point Nursery v. Hassid, which held that temporary physical occupations of property qualify as "per se" takings, that automatically require compensation. Before Cedar Point, conventional wisdom assumed that most temporary physical occupations are subject to the complicated Penn Central balancing test, under which the government usually prevails.

Here is the key passage from the Eighth Circuit ruling:.........To Read More....